1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to system, a method, an apparatus, a control method thereof, and a computer program for wireless communications under an environment wherein there are a plurality of terminals capable of wireless communications, and particularly to a system, a method, an apparatus, a control method thereof, and a computer program for wireless communications under an environment in which a plurality of users freely select wireless communications terminals of their respective choices and form respective independent wireless network groups.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a system, a method, an apparatus, a control method thereof, and a computer program for wireless communications in which each user forms a wireless network group over the wireless communications terminals by way of a simple authentication procedure.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the spread of information communications technology, sharing information such as a file and data or sharing peripheral equipment such as a printer, or exchanging information by electronic mail and data transfer are frequently carried out by connecting a plurality of computers to form a LAN (Local Area Network).
The conventional LAN is generally carried out by connecting with wire such as optical fiber, coaxial cable or twisted-pair cable. However, it requires cable laying work which makes it difficult to construct the LAN with ease. Further, even after construction of the LAN, the limitation of moving range of the equipment due to a cable length brings inconvenience.
Consequently, to free the user from LAN wiring due to the wire method, wireless LAN is now attracting attention. Since wireless LAN can dispense with much of wire cable, terminals can be moved with relative ease.
Along with spread of information apparatus and equipment such as a personal computer and computerization of home appliances, a wireless network is prevailed into a home very quickly. Under such PAN (Personal Area Network) environment, it is assumed for a condition that a plurality of wireless equipment exist in the home. In order to establish connection over each wireless equipment, a procedure called “authentication,” is needed between the wireless equipment the user desires to connect to.
For example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-144767, there is disclosed a method of selecting the equipment to connect to a wireless LAN, which enables to select any desired connecting equipment among a plurality of connecting equipment exist in a communications range.
Nevertheless, very cumbersome procedures are needed if communications are to be made by selecting a desired communications equipment among a plurality of communications equipment in a communication range.
For example, there is already available a system which establishes one-to-one communications by performing authentication using a contactless card. However, in this case, authentication information is transmitted one-sidedly from the contactless card, and it is not suited for performing authentication in forming a many-to-many network.